Enviable Position?

[Fr0g]

Hey, I was hoping to get some opinions from some people with experience on how good a position I'm in when it comes to getting into medical school. I'm a sophomore at the University of South Alabama with a 3.7 GPA. I'm double majoring in Biology and Spanish. Forgive me if the following sounds like I'm bragging, but it's honest ignorance of the complexities of medical school admission. Would the fact that my dad is the Medical Director of a Primary Health Center downtown and teaches at my school's medical school section frequently mean that, through connections and such I would be able to list excellent volunteer activities helping out down there, good clinical experience doing rotations with him and his associates, and get good letters of reccommendation from the doctors and surgeons in the community negate that my school isn't highly ranked? I've read that plastic surgery/ENT is highly competitive and takes your medical school greatly into account when applying for residencies, so I was just a little worried about getting into a top 10 medical school since I come from such a humble college. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated! ^_^

PS-The reason I don't ask my dad myself is that, as a teenager, I tend to value opinions from my peers more than adults, even though I probably shouldn't so much, hehe.

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[pbehzad]

well you are in a very fortunate position. you obviously extreme amount of experience and exposure to medicine. as far as your school goes, i think your gpa is fine, and as long as you get a good mcat, you will be competitive. now im not going to say undergrad school doesnt matter (cause personally i hope it does), but if you bust out on mcat then you should be just as competitive as someone from a top 25 undergrad school. if your stats are fairly similar and everything is about equal, someone from a top 25 school may have the better chance than someone from a lower school. this is what i think, and believe im probably totally wrong. but all that matters is get good grades, and high mcat and get some great connections like you already have. good luck!

 

[cabruen]

Well since you don't mention any MCAT score, I assume you haven't taken it yet. Assuming you get something average to slightly above average (28-31), I would think you have an excellent chance of being admitted to medical school. However, for the top 10 schools, they can be highly selective, and there is really no predicting who can get in and who doesn't. If you read the thread on Stanford and Johns Hopkins rejections, you can see that there are FANTASTIC people getting rejected pre-interview.

In addition, I have come to the conclusion that it is much more important to excel at a school, than be middle of the pack at a top 10 school.

Best of luck.

 

[CoffeeCat]

sounds like gradewise you're fine...my advice (taken from the vast knowledge of a yet-to-apply-premed) is that you do something unusual on top of all that. You have some time to think about it, but I'd suggest some work abroad (peace corps plug!) or something you're involved heavily in - music, sports, art, etc. to get you into a top ten. From what I've heard, it takes great scores plus a little extra on the side